Later in the conversation, though, Sam says DEA-SIG’s investigation put a stop to something that could have become truly insidious—a gang masquerading as a do-gooding organization supported by the city’s political class.“We were getting ready to take it to a whole different level,” he recalls. “The streets would have provided the money. We would have got the city to provide grant money. If it had worked,” Sam speculates, “that s--t would have gone in the f---ing history books, and Baltimore would have been a city where every f---ing mayor and every f---ing councilman is corrupt. That’s what that s--t would have been. That’s the direction it was going."